Twin Cities home buyers can appreciate that today’s unique opportunities to buy a home at low interest rates may be limited. However, higher mortgage rates hikes historically haven’t diminished home sales when people have another reason to buy, says Jenna Thuening, owner of Home Destination. “I find buyers are more confident in the real estate market and that believe our economy is on the mend. They perceive that rates are not going to stay at 3.5 percent indefinitely, and therefore make a decision to buy a house now.”

The Motley Fool commented on the impact of interest rate hikes on home buyers. “While low interest rates are often the catalyst for heavy refinancing activity, a major factor impacting purchase activity can often be less-quantitative: optimism”. Twin Cities home investors require more that base assumptions. Housing investment advisers at Motley Fool state that, “human nature kicks when the expectation for prices to dramatically rises and consumers find themselves saying, ‘I need to act now before prices go even higher!’ or ‘My house is going to double in value!’ In order for the housing market to continue trending higher, a rosy outlook is essential.

Overall, prospective home buyers seem to keep a balanced outlook according to recent findings in Fannie Mae’s June 2013 Monthly National Housing Survey of U.S. consumers. Among the homeowners surveyed, the average expectation of the home price appreciation for the coming year is an uptick of 3.8%. Even though we have watched home prices doubling above June 2012′s expectation of 1.9% a year ago, the expectation for 3.8% appreciation is not a wild or unreasonable figure. “To put the 3.8% increase expectation into perspective, according to data provide by Yale professor and housing market guru Robert Shiller, the nominal compounded annual growth rate for U.S. home prices over the last 60 years has been 3.8%,” sums up The Motley Fool.

Metro study published a May 2013 report titled Twin Cities Remains One of the Healthier Markets showing casing the Minneapolis metro housing statics against the backdrop of national averages. “Despite slow recovery in new home starts over the past several years, the housing market has fundamentally improved more than most realize. It doesnt feel like it and it wont make the headlines, but things have been improving since 2009,” said Ryan Jones, Metrostudys Twin Cities division director.

According to the Minneapolis Association of Area Realtors, the Twin Cities housing market report for the week ending July 6 showing the following gains:

MMAR’s July 11, 2013 news release shows that traditional home sales tell the story of Twin Cities home buyers pushing past interest rate hikes and showing a return to a more normal market conditions.

Traditional home listings – up about 44.4 percent

Real estate seller activity – up 20 percent

Foreclosure new listing s- down 24.6 percent

Short sale new listings – down 51.7 percent

16 straight months of year-over-year price gains

“The climb in mortgage rates definitely will impact some buyers, however, on overview shows the at the height of the housing market, rates hovered at 6 percent and home sales hit record highs,” adds Thuening.

Home Destination helps Twin Cities real estate buyers searching to know their best options in the midst of mortgage rate hikes. Call 612-396-7832 for your own highly personalized guide when buying a new home.

Categories

Search the Central Banker

Archives

The Central Banker™ is a division of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, Inc. Other logos are owned by their perspective entities. The Central Banker provides information relating to central banks, foreign reserves, monetary authorities, macroeconomics, and other relevant topics.